Who We Are

Our intention is to inform people of racist, homophobic, religious extreme hate speech perpetrators across social networking internet sites. And we also aim to be a focal point for people to access information and resources to report such perpetrators to appropriate web sites, governmental departments and law enforcement agencies around the world.

We will also post relevant news worthy items and information on Human rights issues, racism, extremist individuals and groups and far right political parties from around the world although predominantly Britain.

Wednesday, 8 September 2010

A homophobic teenager - who was jailed for assault following the death of council worker Jim Kerr - has had a second case in less than a year dropped over a legal technicality.

A homophobic teenager - who was jailed for assault following the death of council worker Jim Kerr - has had a second case in less than a year dropped over a legal technicality.

Alexander Kindred, 18, was cleared of a vicious street attack in Perth, after a taxi driver failed to identify him during a trial.

Kindred was 15 when he started a homophobic attack on council worker Jim Kerr which eventually led to his victim being battered to death.

The schoolboy called in his friends to beat Kerr to death. He then callously passed his victim's lifeless body on his way to a party where he bragged he had hit 'a poof'. He was sentenced to one year in a young offenders' institute for assault.

At Perth Sheriff Court last week, taxi driver Brian Richards told the trial Kindred and his co-accused Steven Miller, 32, got out of his cab and assaulted Celtic-shirt wearing pedestrian Shawn McPhee, on August 9 last year.

Kindred and Miller, both from Perth, faced charges of repeatedly punching, kicking and stomping on McPhee to his injury in Rannoch Road, Perth.

Richards told the trial the men had been passengers in his car and climbed back in after the assault and he carried on taking them to their original destination.

Richards was asked to identify the two men in court. He pointed out Miller, but was unable to formally identify curly-haired Kindred.

As a result, fiscal depute Stuart Richardson said: “In light of the nature of the identification evidence given by Mr Richards I do not intend to proceed any further and invite the court to formally acquit the accused.”

Central Scotland Police today moved to reassure an unsettled gay community in Perth, telling PinkPaper.com that the force will “continue to take a zero-tolerance approach to crime motivated by hate."

A spokesman said: “One of the biggest challenges facing the police service is increasing the number of persons detected and then prosecuted for hate crimes.”

Kindred, who claimed he acted in self-defence and blamed Miller for the attack, smirked as he left the dock.

Anti-Islam party leader Geert Wilders wants to resume talks on forming a right-wing coalition with the VVD Liberals and Christian Democrats, Nos tv reports on Tuesday.

Wilders pulled out of the talks after four weeks on Friday, saying he no longer had confidence in the CDA.

But now Ab Klink, the CDA's biggest critic of the right-wing alliance, has stepped down as an MP, Wilders says he would like to start talking again.

In an initial reaction, VVD leader Mark Rutte said he would be pleased to resume talks on a right-wing government.

And CDA leader Maxime Verhagen also wants to reopen the negotiations. My position is the same as it was on Friday, Verhagen said. 'The CDA wants to continue.'

Debate
MPs are due to debate the collapse of right-wing cabinet talks with the queen's negotiator Ivo Opschelten on Tuesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, queen Beatrix is currently consulting her advisors and party leaders about what should happen next in terms of forming a new government.

The Netherlands has been without effective government since the end of February when the cabinet collapsed over support for Afghanistan. The VVD emerged as the biggest party with 31 seats after the June general election. Labour has 30 and the PVV 24.

Jewish groups have stepped up efforts to combat anti-Muslim bigotry, with several national initiatives announced this week and supporting statements coming in from a range of Jewish voices.

In Washington, officials from several Jewish organizations took part Tuesday in an emergency summit of Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders that denounced anti-Muslim bigotry and called for a united effort by believers of all faiths to reach out to Muslim Americans.

Also Tuesday, the Anti-Defamation League announced the creation of an Interfaith Coalition on Mosques, which will monitor and respond to instances of anti-Muslim bias surrounding attempts to build new mosques in the United States.

Meanwhile, six rabbis and scholars representing the Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative and Orthodox streams have launched an online campaign urging rabbis to devote part of their sermons this Shabbat to educating their congregations about Islam.

The efforts come in response to what organizers describe as a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment resulting from the impending ninth anniversary of 9/11 and the controversy surrounding efforts to build a Muslim community center and mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan. Jewish bloggers and pundits, mostly on the right, have become more vocal in opposing the center and calling for greater scrutiny of American mosques.

Among the Jewish leaders at the emergency summit was Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

“As Jews, we could be nowhere else today,” said Saperstein, whose organization co-sponsored Tuesday's interfaith summit with the Islamic Society of North America.

“We have been the quintessential victims of religious persecution … and we know what happens when people are silent,” he said, explaining why clergy and believers of all faiths need to be more forceful in speaking out against anti-Muslim bigotry. “We have to speak more directly to the anti-Muslim bigotry in America today.”

Leaders of the mainstream Protestant, evangelical Christian, Baptist and Catholic churches, Muslim organizations and several Jewish streams issued a joint statement Tuesday after their summit “to denounce categorically the derision, misinformation and outright bigotry being directed against America’s Muslim community.”

In addition to the Religious Action Center, representatives from the Reconstructionist and Conservative movements, the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, an umbrella organization of more than 125 Jewish community relations councils and 14 national agencies, including the four major Jewish streams, also attended the summit.

The National Council of Jewish Women released a statement Tuesday denouncing Islamaphobia, decrying anti-Muslim bigotry and noting that “extremists who use Islam as a justification for their heinous acts of terrorism should not be allowed to dictate the character of the entire religion.”

The group of interfaith leaders met later in the day with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to coordinate parallel efforts with the government to combat anti-Islam sentiment.

The joint statement calls upon clergy of all faiths to denounce anti-Muslim bigotry and hate violence from their pulpits, and asserts that “leaders of local congregations have a special responsibility to teach with accuracy, fairness and respect about other faith traditions.”

In a similar vein, Jewish interfaith leaders in an online letter called upon pulpit rabbis to use part of their sermons on Saturday to address the need for understanding Islam. Professors and deans of the rabbinical seminaries of the Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative movements, as well as the independent Hebrew College, signed the letter.

“The proposal for the ‘mosque at Ground Zero’ that turns out not to be a mosque and not at Ground Zero has brought to light this simple fact: We Americans need to know a whole lot more about Muslims and their religion,” said Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, director of multifaith studies and initiatives at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and a main organizer of the appeal.

Organizers say a number of rabbis from various streams have indicated they will take part.

The ADL’s initiative underscores the shifting tide within the organized Jewish community.

Several weeks ago the organization generated national headlines when its national director, Abraham Foxman, came out against placing the Islamic center so close to Ground Zero. Foxman said the sensitivities of families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks should be respected.

Its new coalition is focused on helping Muslim communities that face bigotry when they attempt to build local mosques.

Foxman told JTA that within two weeks, the Interfaith Coalition on Mosques will begin its work collecting details of incidents in which mosques are being challenged, determining whether bigotry is involved and, if so, whether public or legal responses are warranted. Mosques that are opposed due to zoning problems will be outside its purview.

The coalition's charter members, the ADL said, will include a diverse collection of religious scholars and leaders, including representatives of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Catholic Church.

Despite creating the coalition, the ADL has not changed its position on the Islamic center near Ground Zero, Foxman told JTA.

“Our position is very clear: They have a legal right, but the location is not sensitive to the victims,” he said, noting that not everyone in the coalition agrees with the ADL position.

One Jewish observer who rejected what he described as a strategy by Islamist groups to "cry Islamophobia" is Steve Emerson, who directs the Investigative Project on Terrorism that tracks such groups.

Noting that the most recent FBI list of hate crimes includes many more attacks against Jews than against Muslims, he suggests that talk of anti-Muslim hatred plays into the hands of anti-American radicals.

"Given this significant disparity in real world hate crime incidents, is there truly a 'surge of Islamaphobia' occurring, or is it more perception generated in and by certain media in cahoots with the Islamists?" he asked.

Foxman said that defending the rights of Muslims to build mosques “does not obviate” the need to continue to monitor mosques and churches for instances in which they preach hatred.

Pastor Jones - author of a book entitled Islam is of the Devil - has said he understands the general's concerns but that it was "time for America to quit apologising for our actions and bowing to kings".

Another pastor at the church told the BBC that members intended to burn several hundred copies of the holy book on Saturday evening, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, in defiance of an order by the city not to hold an open air bonfire.

Muslims consider the Koran to be the word of God and insist it be treated with the utmost respect. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the holy book is deeply offensive to them.

An interfaith group of evangelical, Roman Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim leaders meeting in Washington on Tuesday condemned the proposals as a violation of American values and the Bible.

"I have heard many Muslim Americans say they have never felt this anxious or this insecure in America since directly after 11 September," said Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America.

Claims that US soldiers have desecrated the Koran in both Afghanistan and Iraq have caused bloodshed in the past.

There were deadly protests in Afghanistan in 2008, when it emerged that a US soldier deployed to Iraq riddled a copy of the holy book with bullets.

And further lives were lost in Afghan riots in 2005 when Newsweek magazine printed a story alleging that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet.

The story later turned out to be false and was retracted by the magazine.

Ten years ago, on Sept. 7, 2000, a Kootenai County jury rendered a $6.3 million verdict against the Aryan Nations and its leader, Richard Butler.

That action bankrupted the racist organization, severely diminishing its influence in North Idaho.

On Tuesday, civil rights leaders joined with leaders from Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai County, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and law enforcement to celebrate the victory at the Kootenai County veterans’ plaza. The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations unveiled a monument made of black marble to commemorate the day.

“What a great day this is. Ten years ago and more, we had people living in this community and in this area that were full of fear,” said Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem. “We had many people that lived outside of this community that wouldn’t come here because they were afraid. And today, because of the heroes standing here, we can celebrate the fact that we don’t live in fear and people come to this community from all over the world.

“Silence never did win any rights,” Bloem said. “Silence never did pick up and make us a better place. And silence certainly wouldn’t have done it 10 years ago.”

On July 1, 1998, Victoria Keenan and her son, Jason, were driving past the Aryan Nations compound near Hayden when they were attacked by the organization’s security guards after their car backfired. Bullets hit their car and they were driven off the road. The guards threatened to kill them if they reported the incident. When the Keenans contacted the task force, its attorney, Norm Gissel of Coeur d’Alene, recruited renowned human rights lawyer Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center to represent the Keenans in the civil trial.

Coeur d’Alene attorney Ken Howard also joined the legal team. On Tuesday, Howard said that for years, Butler and the Aryan Nations used their notoriety to “embarrass and define this beautiful North Idaho homeland of ours as a place inhospitable to all of those who were not of the white Christian race.” For years, he said, they held parades along Sherman Avenue, and followers of Butler acted out “hatred and intolerance” by engaging in bombings, shootings and murder, but none of the violent acts could be tied to Butler.

Butler survived in this community, Howard said, because people here believed in the constitutional protections of freedom of speech and religion, despite being “deeply troubled” by the reputation of hatred and intolerance brought upon the area.

“On Sept. 7, 2000, this community’s tolerance of Butler came to an end,” Howard said. “This verdict was, in part, directed to compensate the Keenans, but largely to punish Butler and his followers and to serve to deter similar conduct in the future.”

Following the jury’s civil verdict, Butler and the Aryan Nations declared bankruptcy in federal court. The Keenans were awarded the compound, which they sold to philanthropist and human rights activist Greg Carr. He destroyed the compound and turned it into a “peace park,” which he donated to the North Idaho College Foundation.

“What I love most about this victory is the way the local community handled it,” said Carr, also among Tuesday’s speakers. “You didn’t take away the free speech of the other side; you just made your own voices louder. And because your cause was just, you won the argument.”

The stone for the monument unveiled Tuesday was donated by Da Vinci Stone Design of Post Falls. Artist Julie Wood contributed her services designing and engraving the stone. The monument will be displayed permanently either at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library or at the North Idaho College library, following a decision by the task force’s board of directors.

Paul Mullet, the self-described national director of the Aryan Nations, contacted the media two weeks ago when he heard about the planned ceremony. He said that although he has moved to Ohio due to a death in the family, the Aryan Nations will never leave North Idaho.